Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-wpx69 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-12T20:14:47.170Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effect of Synchrotron Losses on Multiple Diffusive Shock Acceleration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

Don Melrose  and
Ashley Crouch
Don Melrose
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Theoretical Astrophysics, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006Australia; [email protected]
Ashley Crouch
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Monash University, Clayton, Vic. 3168, Australia; [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The effect of synchrotron losses on diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) at many shocks is treated numerically. Synchrotron losses determine a maximum energy to which electrons can be accelerated through DSA, and this is referred to as the synchrotron cutoff, pc. The distribution of accelerated electrons after many shocks is found (a) for a distribution injected at the initial shock, to tend to a plateau [f(p) independent of p ≲ 0·1pc], and (b) for the cumulative distribution from injection at each shock to tend to f(p) ∝ p–b with b ≈ 3 well below the synchrotron cutoff with a peak in the slope (bmin ≈ 2) at p ≲ 0·1pc. It is suggested that the latter result might account for the flat synchrotron spectra observed in some Galactic Centre sources.

Keywords

particle accelerationflat synchrotron spectra, shock waves
Type
Research Article
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , 1997 , pp. 251 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1997

References

Achterberg, A. 1990, in Physical Processes in Hot Cosmic Plasmas, ed. Brinkman, W. et al. (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic), 67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blandford, R. D., & Eichler, D. 1987, Phys. Rep., 154, 1 Google Scholar
Cotton, W. D., et al. 1980, ApJ, 238, L123 Google Scholar
Drury, L. O'C. 1983, Rep. Prog. Phys., 46, 97 Google Scholar
Kellermann, K. I., & Pauliny-Toth, I. I. K. 1977, ApJ, 155, L71 Google Scholar
Marscher, A. P. 1977, AJ, 82, 781 Google Scholar
Melrose, D. B. 1986, Instabilities in Space and Laboratory Plasmas (Cambridge Univ. Press)Google Scholar
Melrose, D. B. 1996, in Extragalactic Radio Sources, ed. Ekers, R. et al. (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic), 423 Google Scholar
Melrose, D. B., & Pope, M. H. 1993, PASA, 10, 222 Google Scholar
Pope, M. H., & Melrose, D. B. 1994, PASA, 11, 175 Google Scholar
Schlickeiser, R. 1984, A&A 136, 227 Google Scholar
Schneider, P. 1993, A&A 278, 315 Google Scholar
White, R. L. 1985, ApJ, 289, 698 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yusef-Zadeh, F. 1989, in The Center of the Galaxy, IAU Symp. No. 136, ed. M. Morris (Dordrecht: Reidel), 243 Google Scholar